The Approach

My research started in the archives, Italian shop fronts from the 1930s through to the 80s, their hand-painted lettering, sun-bleached colours and unhurried charm. That history was the right foundation, but the direction I kept coming back to was something altogether more tactile.

I became drawn to the idea of dough itself as a design language. There's something in the way dough moves (elastic, yielding, full of life) that felt like the perfect metaphor for a bakery brand. Warm, playful, a little bit indulgent. From that, I developed a custom typography with a distinctive stretch and bounce to it, as if the letterforms had just been pulled from the bowl. It's a typeface you can almost feel.

To bring further personality to the brand, I created a set of custom illustrations, characterful and lively, complementing the logotype without competing with it. For colour, I kept it close to home: the Italian tricolore, reinterpreted with a warmth that felt more cornetto in the sun than flag on a pole.

The Outcome

Alba ended up being one of those projects where the concept and the execution clicked early, and everything flowed from there. The dough idea gave the whole identity a clear, joyful logic. The typography, the illustrations, the colour, all pulling in the same direction. It's a brand that feels like it smells good.